David Elliott

Harry Potter and the Recessive Gene How Are Wizards Made ?

How wizard genetics works ? All humans including wizards receive one copy of each gene from each parent

How wizard genetics works ? ● Some genes can be dominant ●Some genes can be recessive

How wizard genetics works ? ● Some genes can be dominant ●Some genes can be recessive And we are going to learn about this from Harry Potter!

The characters…………. Wizards and Witches

The characters…………. Squibs

And finally…………. Muggles!

How Are Wizards Made ? Being a wizard or a muggle is all decided by genetics

Let’s look at some examples from Harry Potter

First…………….Pure wizards are born from wizard families

How Are Wizards Made ? The gene for wizarding ability is w Wizards have two ww genes

The Malfoys Lucius Malfoy ( ww ) Narcissa Malfoy ( ww ) Draco Malfoy ( ) The Malfoys are a ‘pure blood’ family. From the past all their ancestors have been wizards so they must have the wizarding genes ww w w

Lily Potter ( ww ) James Potter ( ww ) Harry Potter ( WW ) Both Harry’s parents had magical ability so they must both have been ww –like all wizards They passed these genes on to Harry The Potters w w

The Weasleys are pure blood wizards so they all have the genes ww too

A special thing about the wizarding gene w (the gene to make a wizard) is recessive so you can only be a wizard if you have two w genes Remember, you get two copies of every gene

What about Muggles? Muggles have the other kind of gene - DOMINANT

How Are Muggles Made ? The gene for muggleness is M Muggles have the genes Mw or MM

How do you get wizards or witches from muggle families?

Hermione is a powerful witch so she But, both her parents are muggles so they must be Mm so they can give her a w gene each Mw ww

More examples from Harry Potter Next…………….Half-bloods

Tom Riddle is a ‘half blood’. His mother was a witch ( ww ) and his father was a muggle His father must have had the genes Mw so he could give him the other w gene ww Mw

More examples from Harry Potter Next…………….Muggles born in Wizard families

Filch is a ‘squib’ Both his parents are wizards (ww) so he should be too because he can’t get an M gene from either parent but he can’t do any magic This means he has a MUTATION so his wizarding powers don’t work! FILCH

In other words, his wizarding gene w has broken!

Some questions for you

What wizarding genes would Ron and Hermione’s children have ?

Ron (ww) Hermione (ww) Children ( ) w w The answer:

We all have dominant and recessive genes too

Dominant and negative genes Dominant genes: Brown eye colour Negative genes: Blue eye colour

Let’s take a look at you… Grab a partner… TRAITYesNo Free Earlobes (D) Attached Earlobes (R) Can roll tongue (D) Can’t roll tongue (R) Bent little finger (D) Straight little finger (R)

Final Question

Is anyone here a Wizard?